Richard Joseph Durbin born November 21, is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Illinois , a seat he has held since A member of the Democratic Party , Durbin is in his fifth Senate term and has served since as the Senate Democratic whip the second-highest position in the Democratic leadership in the Senate and since as the Senate minority whip.
Durbin was born in East St. Louis, Illinois. Working in state legal counsel throughout the s, he made an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor of Illinois in He later maintained a private law practice and co-owned a pub in Springfield. Durbin was elected to the U. House of Representatives in , representing the Springfield-based 20th congressional district. After serving seven House terms, Durbin was elected to the U.
Senate in and reelected in , , , and He has served as the Senate Democratic whip since βunder Harry Reid until , and under Chuck Schumer since During that time, he had two stints as Senate majority whip from to , and from to , and three as minority whip from to , from to , and since As of , Durbin is the longest-serving Senate party whip in U. He is the dean of Illinois's congressional delegation. Louis in During his high school years he worked at a meatpacking plant.
He earned a B. Durbin interned in Senator Paul Douglas 's office during his senior year in college, and worked on Douglas's unsuccessful reelection campaign. Durbin adopted the nickname "Dick", which he did not previously use, after Douglas mistakenly called him by that name. Durbin earned his J. After graduating from law school, Durbin started a law practice in Springfield. Durbin was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the Illinois State Senate in Durbin then worked as an adjunct professor of medical law at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine for five years while maintaining his law practice.
In , Durbin won the Democratic nomination for the 20th congressional district , which included Macon and most of Springfield. He scored a 1,vote victory, defeating year incumbent Paul Findley , a U. Navy veteran, whose district lines had been substantially redrawn to remove rural farms and add economically depressed Macon. Durbin's campaign emphasized unemployment and financial difficulties facing farmers, and told voters that electing him would send "a message to Washington and to President Reagan that our economic policies are not working.
